Improvement in machines for blocking hats



E. G. FALES.

Machine for Blocking Hats.

Patented Aug. 24,1875.

rLPETERS. PHOTO-LITHOGRAPHER, WASHIHGTUIt 0 (Jv UNITED STATES PATENTOFFICE.

EBEN O. FALES, OF FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINES F OR BLOCKING HATS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 167,086, dated August24, 1875 application filed July 16, 1875.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EBEN O. FALES, of Foxborough, in the county ofNorfolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and usefulImprovement in Machine for Blocking Hats, Bonnets, &c., of which thefollowing is a specification The present invention relates to a machineorapparatus more especially intended for shapin g, pressing, andblocking straw blanks for hats and bonnets into shape, and it moreparticularly relates to an improvement in the blocking-machine describedin the schedule annexed to the Letters Patent of the United Statesissued to me, dated May 20,1873, No. 139,133, which improvementconsists, as to such machine, in the combination therewith of a seriesof flexible or elastic bands or ribs, or their equivalents, which areapplied and arranged to press and flatten out the brim of the hatblocked and pressed in the machine, and to hold the brim in suchflattened position, all substantially as hereinafter described.

In the accompanying plate of drawings the present improvement isillustrated, Figure 1 being in part an elevation and in part a verticalsection of the same, and similarly of a sufficient part of the saidpatented machine to properly illustrate it in connection therewith; andFig.2 is a partial plan view and horizontal section online a; m, Fig. 1.

In the drawings, A represents the hat-block; B, the sectional stretchingring or band, connected to vertical spring-bands G of a head, I; P, thebed; Q, the cross-head, guided by and between suitable posts E of thebed P, all and otherwise in their details substantially as described inthe aforesaid Letters Patent, and therefore needing no more particulardescription herein; 0, a series of spring or flexible bands or ribs,fastened by pairs to the outside of each section of the sectionalstretching ring or band B, and all to a common annular crosshead, D,which is arranged to travel in and be guided by the vertical posts E forthe travel of the cross-head Q, but independently of said cross-head.These spring-ribs are for pressing and flattening out the brim of thehat, otherwise blocked in the machine, according to the aforesaidLettersPatent, and they are made to press and flatten out the brim by movingtheir common head down toward the bed P, which bends them outwardlyagainst the upper side of the brim, and thereby lays and flattens outthe brim on the bed P, where, if then the head D be properly secured insuch position, the brim can be maintained in its flattened condition, sothat when the hat is removed, after having remained sufliciently underthe blocking operation of the machine and of the said ribs 0, the brimwill stand straight out from the side of the body or crown of the hat.

The ribs 0 may be increased in number at pleasure, and in lieu of ribs,such as described, each section of the stretching ring or band B may beprovided with other flexible and elastic attachments-as, for instance, aband, such as shown in Fig. 3 of the drawings, and this band operatedupon by arms suitably projecting from the head D; but ribs, such asdescribed, are found to work most perfectly and satisfactorily.

Obviously the means herein described for pressing and flattening out thebrim of the hat otherwise blocked may be applied to other arrangementsof apparatus for blocking without substantial change.

Having now described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure byLetters Patent, 1s

1.- The combination of the block A, seetional stretching-ring B,cross-head I, bed P, flexible ribs 0, and cross-head D, substantially asand for the purpose specified.

2. The combination, in a machine for blockin g hats, 8tc., constructedto operate substantially as hereinbefore described, of the crosshead Dand the elastic ribs 0, arranged to press and flatten out the brim ofthe hat, as and for the purpose specified.

The above specification of my invention si ned by me this 1st day ofJuly, A. D. 1875.

E. G. FALES. Witnesses:

EDWIN W. BROWN, GEO. H. EARL.

